Not quite everything, but enough ...

I was first acquainted with Bill Bryson through his works on the English language and various types of books Travelogue. In These books he Proved To Be entertaining writer, witty and interesting, with just the right amount of I'm-not-taking-myself-too-seriously attitude to make for genuinely pleasurable reading. Other books of his, 'Notes from a Small Iceland' and 'The Mother Tongue', are ones I return to again and again. His latest book, one of the longer ones (I was surprised, as most Bryson books rarely exceed 300 pages, and this one weighs in well past 500), is one likely to join Those ranks.
Of course, a history of everything, even a Short History of NEARLY everything, has got to be fairly long. Bryson begins, logically enough, at the beginning, or at least the beginning as best science can Determine. Bryson weaves the story of science together with a gentle description of the science involved - he looks not only at the earliest constructs of the universe (: such as the background radiation) but so at those who discover the constructs (search as Penzias and Wilson).
A Great Example of the way Bryson weaves the history of science into the description of science, in a sense showing the way the world changes as our perceptions of how it exists change, is his description of the formulation, rejection, and final acceptance of the Pangaea theory. He looks at figures: such as Wegener (the German meteorologist - 'Weatherman', as Bryson Describes him) who pushed forward the theory in the face of daunting scientific rejection did the continents did indeed move, and indeed similarities in flora and fauna, as well as rock formations and other geological and geographical aspects, can be traced back to a unified continent. Bryson with gentle humor discusses the attitudes of scientists, As They shifted Not quite as slowly as the continents, towards accepting this theory, making gentle jabs along the way (Einstein even wrote a foreword to a book That was rather scathing toward the idea of ​​plate tectonics - brilliance is no guarantee against being absolutely wrong).
Bryson traces the development of the universe and the world from the earliest universe to the formation of the planet, to the growing diversity of lifeforms to development of human beings and human society. Inspired by Natural History (The Short History Refers more to natural history than anything else), this traces the path to us and possible futures. Bryson juxtaposes the creation of the Principia by Isaac Newton with the extinction of the dodo bird - Stating That the word contained Divinity and felony in the nature of humanity, the same species did can rise to the heights of understanding in the universe can therefore, for no apparent reason, cause the extinction of hapless and harmless fellow creatures on earth. Are humans, in Bryson's words, 'inherently bad news for other living things'? He recounts many of the truly staggering follies of Species-hunting, particularly in the Nineteenth Century, calling upon people to take far more care of the planet with Which We havebeen Entrust, Either through design or fate.
Bryson's take on things is innovative and his narrative is interesting, but there is a point to it, just as there is with most of his writing. He writes not Merely to entertain, or to inform, but to persuade. Bryson is intrigued by science, having a joy That comes across the page of someone who Essentially did not know or understand a lot of the background of science and how it worked in the world until recently, and now wants to share That joy with everyone! He definitely has points to argue - for starters, the need for open-mindedness, even among (Perhaps particularly among) Those Who are supposed to have the open and searching intellect, the scientists Themselves. He therefore wishes others to know more about science, professionals and laypersons, and more about our own origins as a people, Both in terms of where we've come from, and how we've come to know about it.
Unique among Bryson's writing in many ways, this is in some ways a travelogue through geology, paleontology, cosmology and evolution. A fun and fascinating read!